MSUM professor co-creates national health education resource
Dr. Julie Knutson, Minnesota State Moorhead health education coordinator, is reshaping the way health educators teach. Dr. Knutson and Dr. Kristen Ford from Concordia College created THE FUSED Toolbox, the first centralized website offering teaching resources for K–12 health education.
THE FUSED is an ever-growing project that aims to close the gap between content knowledge and practical skill application in the classroom.
Funded by a $5,000 grant from the Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE), the platform has been presented at conferences, including MN SHAPE and the SHAPE America National Convention.
“We’re centralizing health education teaching resources that already exist to make it easier to find and teach effectively,” Dr. Knutson says.
Dr. Knutson and Dr. Ford are also sharing their research through an on-going series of articles in the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (JOPERD). The next phase of their work includes expanding content for physical education and developing a textbook designed for higher education faculty.
The website is free and open to educators nationwide. Dr. Knutson encourages all teachers — not only health educators — to explore the site and discover tools that support their quality instruction.